RustyC

Have seen three cases so far this year where rental car rates across the board before tax were $60/day and up on WEEKEND days from car-rent companies at airports.

One was at MSP on a weekend back in May, one is at PDX this weekend (granted, 4th of July, but still...) and one is HNL in about two weeks (despite getting a 1* hotel room at $39 all-in and the reduction in visitors to Hawaii because of fewer flights).

I know a lot of this is supply & demand, but I haven't seen across-the-board high rates or apparent sellouts like this in places like those in at least 10 years, even on holiday weekends. Makes me wonder if the car-rent companies are aggressively trying to limit supply or are just colluding. With the country in a recession and travel hurting and car makers not able to sell cars you'd think the rates would really fall. I remember 3-day weekends back around the 1991 recession at $39 or so all-in for a midsize.

(The high rates aren't everywhere. I had a Priceline bid in MCO go through at $10/day for an economy on a 3-day weekend this month). For the really high-rate situations I'll try to "work the codes" and Entertainment coupons and the like.

Any ideas what's going on? Is car availability being reduced like flight availability is?

travelmad478

Not really. My three most recent rental experiences (or attempts) were:

--one-day mid-size rental in PWM for $29, all in, last week, midweek
--an attempted three-day rental from SNA that I couldn't get a price lower than $330 on from any company, so I bagged the whole idea of renting a car, three weeks ago, midweek
--a 12-day mid-size rental booked for ANC for $627, all in, starting next week

The first and the third were booked with the "magic" code on National. I tried that in SNA, but didn't have any luck. So I am batting .666 on good pricing.

nd_eric_77

DCA has been pretty insanely high for my 2 day rentals (arriving M night; departing W night), but hotwire tends to get me a decent rate with Dollar close to the actual days of rental. I was having good luck with Priceline at RIC, but have not had such luck at DCA.

Exiled in Express

I noticed the spike at MSP too. I am trying to take advantage of the NW miles to go promotion and found that I can't get a car for any day in July for less than $50-60/day on airport. My last rental was from National less than a month ago ($26 all in) and I got lectured for bringing the car back early because they were paying to park several hundred cars that weekend. I found similar prices at neighborhood Enterprise locations but my primary goal is not transportation I am passing.

TheCrackedJack

Yes, but I'm 23, so the underage fee jacks up the price quite a bit.

dgwright99

Actually, the opposite.

I'm seeing the same rates for compacts at the majors on-airport at SFO, SJC, SEA, PDX as usual - they've maybe drifted up a back or two over the last year or two, but no more.

However, I'm finding that I'm increasingly being offered a midsize SUV for the same rate - and indeed have taken to asking, and they are usually happy to oblige.^

knadai

MSP is bad, but STL is much worse.

BNA-WNFan

I've had particularly good luck at ORF and BHM, there have been a couple times where I have gotten a free rental after Hertz CDP and coupon codes.


What kills me are the taxes and fees that they add. DFW and PHX come to mind as my least favorites when it comes to taxes/fees.

Mary2e

Obscenely ridiculous. I tried to reserve from both Avis and National for a week long trip to TPA. Both were charing $300+ taxes for an intermediate. This was 4 months in advance.

I got lucky, remembered my corporate account, and used that with National for $185+ taxes.

Never did I think the day would come where a corporate rate would be less expensive than a 4 month advance purchase using a Costco discount code.

AcnNWAPlatinum

Why is MSP so bad?? I have twice recently tried to rent there for leisure, and have found the rates so staggering I didn't rent. Luckily I have that option as my family lives there and I can use my dad's car - but why is MSP so high?? I'm not finding under 60/day.

Cloudship

Punching in for a reservation next monday in Boston on Delta.com - I was getting an Avis rate of 106$ a day! FOR A COMPACT!

genesmasher

It is not just MSP, try PDX or SEA.

YVR Cockroach

This might be a fundamental and permanent shift in the car rental model and pricing in N. America. The domestic automakers may have come to a point where they're not moving volume by selling on a guaranteed buyback basis to rental fleets (and buying back for resale after a few months). Car fleets will be purchased by rental companies and then disposed by them, rather than just returning them to the manufacturer (or to the dealers). The loss in value between purchase and resale, and operating/capital/financial costs will have to come from rental revenues. I see pricing following trends in such places as Europe.

FWIW, I was checking out LAX rentals for mid August. Weekend rates of $5o/day for a compact when it was $20-25 a few months back.

nd_eric_77

Even though it does not have as fancy a program as Avis or Hertz, Dollar has a very favorable WN rate even when cars are renting out at $80+ per day... SW2358 gets me $40+ / day or $220+ per week for an economy sized car. This often beats what I could get via bidding on Priceline. You don't have to be on a WN flight or anything; the WN Customer rate is open for anybody to use.

Of course, there are airports and times in which you can get a cheaper rate - and the WN rates tend to be always the same. Hence it still helps to do a little legwork.